The two Vortex filter that I have installed for my Koi Pond has been working for a few weeks now. I am now testing the Vortex by turning off my existing filter to see if those two Vortex is able to cope with my 10 tons pond. Water has cleared up slightly but remain greenish. I shall allow the vortex to mature over a period of longer time, possible three month before making any conclusion. Feeding amount is minimal and will slowly increase back to normal level when the bio filter mature. Will post the result soon. Cheers

After the last Discus craze, I am now back again with a new Discus tank. This time, no intention to breed the discus again as I have achieved and managed to breed discus several times years ago. In a 2 feet tank, I am now keeping four juvenile Discus. Two Red Melon and two young discus. Pictures of the Red Melon are as below :-

Installed Google shortly it was announced on news.com. Immediately tested with some of the IT savvy friends and found that Google Talk voice quality is as good as Skype. One major different between Google Talk and Skype is the Skype has the Skype out feature that allow you to call any fixed line or mobile number at extremely economical rate. Google Talk can be downloaded at http://www.google.com/talk/ As I used Gmail a lot these days, I found that using Google Talk and Gmail together extremely handy.

Finally the Constructor Title of the current Formula 1 season is within the reach of Mc Laren Team. With only 9 points behind that of Renault and with the current form, Mc Laren will have no problem to catch up and lift the Constructor within the next few races. As for the Driver title, the pictures look rather different. Raikkonen is currently trailing 24 points at second place and to catch up with Alonso, the title leader is definitely an uphill task. It now depend on whether Alonso will bring any cheers to the Mc Laren camp by having one or two non finishes. Renault car has been very reliable when compared to Mc Laren this season. Even if Alonso finish 3rd in all remaining races and Raikkonen win all the remaining races, he will still win the driver title. Mathematically, it still bring some hope but we will have to face the fact that Alonso will be the eventual champion. Not to my liking that that will the result. Guess I will have to wait for another year and hopefully Mc Laren will still be able to maintain the advantage that they are enjoying now. Drivers’ Standings Pos Driver Points 1 F Alonso (Spa) 95 2 K Raikkonen (Fin) 71 3 M Schumacher (Ger) 55 4 JP Montoya (Col) 40 5 J Trulli (Ita) 39 6 G Fisichella (Ita) 35 7 R Schumacher (Ger) 32 8 R Barrichello (Bra) 31 9 N Heidfeld (Ger) 28 10 M Webber (Aus) 24 11 J Button (GB) 23 12 D Coulthard (GB) 21 13 F Massa (Bra) 8 14= T Monteiro (Por) 6 14= A Wurz (Aut) 6 14= J Villeneuve (Can) 6 17= N Karthikeyan (Ind) 5 17= C Klien (Aut) 5 19= C Albers (Hol) 4 19= P de la Rosa (Spa) 4 21 P Friesacher (Aut) 3 22= T Sato (Jap) 1 22= V Liuzzi (Ita) 1 Constructor Standings Pos Team Points 1 Renault 130 2 McLaren 121 3 Ferrari 86 4 Toyota 71 5 BMW-Williams 52 6 Red Bull 27 7 BAR 24 8 Sauber 14 9 Jordan 11 10 Minardi 7

After having stopped keeping aquarium fishes for quite a number of years, I am back now with a new community tank, 2′ in size and powered by two external hanging filter filtering water at 100 gallons per hour. Fishes include Guppy, Tetra, Sword Tails, Red Eye and some other funny looking fishes. Water is crystal clear with two filter running. Total number of fishes is about 30. Aug 17, 2005, Kuala Lumpur , Malaysia

We were at Taman Desa the other day and a friend of our who is a photographer help us to shoot a few photograph of our PUG Boofie and Teneal. Boofie is 6.5 years old where Teneal is 3 years old. Some of the pictures taken are :-

The Haze across the KL skyline is extremely serious today and the visibility even during noon is extremely poor. Some pictures taken in the vicinity of our office are below :- The air smell like KL is burning. It is a pity that under such condition that many people still have to work outdoor. The pollution index recorded for KL was 276, much lower than 420 recorded in Klang. Even at 276, it is bad enough. August 10, 2005, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

After more than 10 years of keeping koi, I finally decided to add Vortex Filter to my pond system to increase the water filtering capacity. Two large capacity Vortex Filter Chambers were purchased locally. The Vortex are 4′ tall about 3′ in diameter and each Vortex has two compartment, top and bottom section. The Vortexs are filled in the following manner :- 1) First Vortex is completed filled with brushes, all together 43 of them of 24 inches long each. The bottom section of this Vortex is filled with 20 brushes where the top section has 23 of them. This Vortex will serve primarily as the settlement chamber or prefilter to removed heavy solid waste. 2) The bottom section of the 2nd Vortex is filled with 25Kg of Bio Ring. The top section is filled with 25Kg of sea shells. Both Bio Ring and Sea Shell will serve as filter medium for biological filter. The sea shell will also serve as buffer against PH fluctuation in pond water. The inlet and outlet of the Vortex is 4″ PVC pipe. A 150watt Tsurumi Submersible Pump is being used to feed water from the pond to the Vortex. Some of the pictures of the Vortex setup as below :- Two Vortexs Vortex Filled with brushes Top view of empty Vortex Chamber Bio Ring Sea Shell Installation will commence soon and I will post the overall cost and installation time required in the near future. The same posting will also be added to the Koi Forum in time to come. Upon completion of the setup, the Vortex will serve the 12 tons pond and I will monitor its performance to see if the Vortexs alone is enough for the 12 tons pond water.

My Volvo S80 decided not to start at 10:00pm tonight due to a flat battery that has only been in use for 3 months. That is bad news. Unable to start the car, just pick up my mobile and call Volvo On Call toll free line for the first time and in 30 minutes, the technicant arrived with a brand new battery and replaced for me at totally no charge. That is definitely good service and I hope that can continue to count on Volvo On Call in the future should my car refuse to cooperate again.

On July 2, 2005 a group of us including my wife, Raja and Law KS were down south in Jelebu to view Malinois puppies. It was a cool morning drive for 1.5 hours to Jelebu and we spent a good later part of the morning seeing some bite works and enjoy some nice durian in the orchard. Law KS finally purchased his first Malinois from Mike and we should expect him to get into Schutzhund training in few months down the road. Some of the nice pictures taken during the day are :- At the young age of 10 weeks, these Malinois puppies showing no sign of backing off when challenged. The pups practising on bite works. Law KS trying out on bite works with an adult Malinois. The Malinois Kennel Malinois charging at the helper from 10 feet away. Raja stacking the GSD.

Interview by Sun Property Plus on www.realestate.net.my was published on July 1, 2005. www.realestate.net.my has gained some momentum lately, thanks for the several media report on this web site which we hope to provide a good alternative for people to advertise their property for sale, free of charge 🙂

Tennis and Formula 1 has always been my favourite sports. In Tennis, I always admire Andre Agassi who has gone through the up and down in life. The best Tennis matches that I enjoy the most must be the French Open Final in 1999 that was won by two old guards in Tennis, namely Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf. Their determination to win and commitment to the sports always motivate me in one way or another. In contrast, Martina Hinggis who has won many matches at young age faded away from Tennis world since then. Have not heard much of her since then. In Formula 1, the biggest thing that has happened must be the crash of Aryton Senna that has taken his life many years ago. Aryton Senna has never been my favourite and I enjoy watching Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost and Mika Hakinen racing more than others. Needless to say, McLaren is always my favourite team. Whether it is McLaren Honda or The West McLaren Mercedes Team, they always have my attention in all races. In recent years, I have watched Mika won for McLaren twice and glad to see McLaren is back to the running again in this season with Kimi Raikonan. Hope to see Kimi win again in this weekend British GP. Staying awake at 2:00am to watch the US GP some four weeks ago must be one of those night that will stay in my memory for many years to come. Stunned to see 14 Formula 1 car drove straight to pit after the formation lap to skip the US GP for safety reason and later hope the race steward will stop the race or the spectators will flood the race track but all those never took place. The race started with only 6 cars and end with six and allowed Schuey and Ferrari to close the gap and at the same time deprived Kimi to close the gap to Alonso. The US GP is definitely the biggest F1 debacle in recent years. Who is right and who is wrong is hard to say. Put yourself in their shoe you will find that why each side took their own stand and why they made those decision at that time. If not handle properly, we could see the end of Formula 1 and the rise of the breakaway series. We shall wait and see.